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If Loving You is Wrong
If Loving You is Wrong is a soap opera, created, executive produced, written and directed by Tyler Perry that is seen on the Oprah Winfrey Network (or OWN). It was the second originally scripted series for OWN, following the smashing success of Tyler Perry's The Haves and the Have Nots. The series takes place in the fictional town of Maxine and focuses on the lives of five women who are neighbors and close friends. Four of the five women, Alex, Esperanza, Natalie, and Kelly bonded as friends as a result of their children being on the same sports team. (The fifth woman, Marcie, was childless) The series began in 2014, and was as much of a success as The Haves and The Have Nots, which had been on for two seasons when this series appeared. The show is based on Tyler Perry's 2014 movie, The Single Moms Club. In fact, one of the movie's actresses, Zulay Henao, reprised her movie role of Esperanza in the TV show, although her story from the movie was modified for the television series. Cast *Aiden Turner as Brad Montgomery, a businessman married to Alex, The father of two children, Peter and Paisley. A calm and collected individual although he does not realize that his neighbor and his former best friend, Randal, is embarking on an affair with his wife until the second season, where the two get into a heated confrontation. After discovering the affair, he packs and leaves Alex, with plans on divorcing her. He and Randal's former wife, Marcie then bond. He is also best friends with Edward Willis, the two bonding after he saved his life when they were both serving in Iraq. He had a vasectomy after his daughter, Paisley's birth, which gives credence to the fact that Randal could be the father of Alex's recently born baby. He finally has enough of all of the deceit and leaves Alex and moves in with Marcie. He is also hated by his soon-to-be former in-laws. *Amanda Clayton as Alexandra (Alex) Montgomery, Brad's wife, the mother of two children named Peter and Paisley. She is also the cousin to Eddie Willis, her husband's best friend. She is also involved in an affair with her next door neighbor, Randal, who calls her Peppa. It is possible she is pregnant with Randal's child (as Brad is sterile after the births of their two children, when he underwent a vasectomy). Due to her affair, she imperils her marriage to Brad, who leaves her, and destroys her friendship with Marcie. Alex still wants to make her marriage work, and wants nothing more to do with Randal, although he is still in love with her. She gives birth to her third child, but he is African American, which could well mean that Randal is the child's father. It was revealed that Randal is INDEED the baby's father, and he tries to bond with the child, despite her attempts not to allow that to happen. She gets a rude surprise when her backwater parents are brought up from their home to see their new grandson. Her parents are quite racist and they are stunned and appalled to find out their grandson is a black child. It was also revealed that her father raped her continuously from the age of six to her college years, and her mother did nothing about it, hence her acrimonious relations with her parents. *Zulay Henao as Esperanza Willis, a divorced mother of a daughter, Mika, by her chauvinistic ex-husband, Edward. She is dating a man named Julius, who is related to members of a Colombian drug cartel, which causes her trouble for her and Edward and imperils Mika's safety. She works for the Maxine Police Department as a 911 dispatcher. She and Edward's second wife, Yolanda have an absolutely acrimonious relationship and the two quarrel whenever they are in the same room. She is also always up for babysitting the kids, as they keep her from thinking too much. It is possible that she and Edward could well get back together again, although he ruins it by his constant scheming and his corruption ridden nature. Esperanza was a character in the movie, "The Single Moms Club", which served as an inspiration for the series. Her backstory was modified for the TV series. Henao was the only actress from the movie to reprise her role on the series. *Joel Rush as Edward Willis, a highly corrupt City of Maxine police officer and the antagonist of the series. The father of a daughter, Mika, by his ex-wife, Esperanza and two more children (one an older daughter) by his second wife, Yolanda, Edward is a very chauvinistic and controlling man, who is also more than a bit deceitful and exceedingly brutal in his doings. This corruption shows in his work as a police officer. Partnered with Lushion who has a hostile working relationship with him due to the rookie cop's solid sense of right and wrong. Despite his chauvinism; his jealousy and his corrupt nature, he does have a caring and helpful side and is Brad Montgomery's best and most loyal friend, after the former saved Edward while they were in Iraq together. He is also the cousin to Brad's wife, Alex. Edward is targeted in a drive-by shooting by a hateful drug-cartel enforcer, but is saved by his partner, Lushion. He undergoes surgery and he pulls through. He has troubles with Esperanza and Yolanda, who are constantly at one another's throats. However, he is revealed to have had drug problems (a cocaine addiction), and is revealed that he is the way he is due to him still being deeply in love with Esperanza and that he adores his daughter. This could very well anger a jealous Yolanda who wishes he would leave Esperanza and Mika alone and concentrate on the family he has with her. He goes back to his womanizing ways when Esperanza furiously throws him out of her house. He becomes progressively more evil to the point where he threatens and harasses Natalie and shoots her with a Taser after he kicks in the door with her children present. This angers Lushion enough that he shoots Eddie in retaliation, but not before Eddie and his scheming rookie partner, Ben, set up an ambush on Maxine's crime-ridden south side which injures Pete, another rookie officer. *April Parker Jones as Natalie Henning, a working single mother of four children who lives in the inner city section of Maxine. She manages her own fast food restaurant called Burger Fast. Sees a lot of her former lover, Lushion, since he is the father of her youngest son, Frankie. After his failures at finding work, Natalie has Joey, her oldest son, work with her at Burger Fast. She is eventually fired by the owner, Mr. Kim, after he catches Joey in bed with his daughter, Faun. However, he re-hires her after finding out that firing her for that reason was unlawful. *Heather Hemmens as Marcie Holmes, a real estate agent who was married to psychiatrist, Randal. Her friendship with Alex is destroyed when she discovers that she is the one called "Peppa" who is having an affair with her husband. Marcie lashes out at both of them, serves Randal with divorce papers and decides she is going to treat him to a dose of his own medicine when she seduces and decides to have an adulterous affair......with Brad! However, she thinks better of it, and she and Brad bond. In the season finale, Brad and Marcie move into an apartment together and plan on getting together as a couple. *Edwina Finley Dickerson as Kelly Issacs, a widowed single working mother who is raising her young son, Justice, on her own. Kelly works at a bank in Maxine, where she is a loan officer. She is involved with a man named Travis, who breaks her heart by getting engaged while in Haiti. Despite his engagement, which he broke off, he still loves Kelly and aims to still make a life with her. She becomes enamored of a man named Ramsy, to the jealous rage of Travis. *Matt Cook as Joey Henning, Natalie's oldest son, who was released from Prison. Somewhat naïve about a lot of things, especially when it comes to work and still getting used to being out of prison. He is hovered over and overly protected by his mother. After many attempts to find work, his mother hires him at Burger Fast. However, due to his infatuation with Faun, the owner's daughter, he and his mother are both fired. Eventually, though his mother was rehired as the firing was considered unlawful. Joey, however, won't work there again. *Charles Malik Whitfield as Lushion Morgan, Natalie's ex, the father of her youngest son, Frankie, who was a former security guard who now is a rookie police officer partnered with Edward. Has a solid sense of right and wrong, and because of his high moral fiber, is often at odds with the corrupt Edward. However, despite that, Lushion saves his life after a failed drive-by shooting. Lushion is revealed to have a lot of money saved up, this imperils his relationship with Natalie. However, upon hearing that Eddie kicked in her door and shooting her with a Taser, Lushion loses his temper and sets off an alarm and shoots Eddie in revenge, but not before a rookie police officer, Pete, is brutally gunned down in an ambush that Eddie had planned with another rookie officer named Ben. Natalie and Lushion finally break up after she discovers he has been holding out on her about money. *Tiffany Hadish as Jackie, a business-savvy woman who is Natalie's loyal assistant at Burger Fast. *Denzel Wells as Travis, Kelly's ex, who was on a relief mission in Haiti. He gets engaged there and breaks it off with Kelly. Then he breaks off with the new fiancée and then tries to get back with a disinterested Kelly. Travis wants to be just friends, but gets surprisingly jealous when Kelly begins to see a man named Ramsy. *Eltony Williams as Dr. Randal Holmes, a psychologist who destroyed his marriage with Marcie and his friendship with Brad by sleeping with the latter's wife, Alex, whom he calls "Peppa". Despite her rebuffing him, Randal is still deeply in love with Alex. Brad and Randal have a vicious fight in the latter's backyard, where Brad destroys the boat they were working on. Gets a dose of his own medicine when Marcie declares she is going to have an adulterous affair......with Brad (an idea she eventually decides against doing, but she and Brad bond more due to their shared betrayal). He also gets served with divorce papers by Marcie, which he refuses to sign, believing he can have his cake and eat it too. Is the father of Alex's newborn baby boy. Tries to bond with his son, but Alex refuses to allow him to do so. He and Brad get into a vicious fight in the hospital. He also brags about his new baby with Alex to the anger of Marcie and his mother, Miss Louise. He even goes to the point that he takes his wife's credit cards and tries to wipe her out financially to keep her with him, but fails. *Jasmine Guy as Mattaline, the wealthy mother of Travis. At first, not in approval of Kelly, but later changes her mind and warms up to her. She relents and she approves of her. *Dawan Owens as Quon, one of Joey's drug-running buddies, whom is not liked by either Natalie or Lushion and at times, by Joey himself. Because he had money stolen, he was threatened by Julius, and sets up a drive-by shooting with the intent of killing Edward; but Lushion saves his corrupt partner. *Brianne Davis as Yolanda Willis, Edward's second wife, whom he met after his divorce from Esperanza, and has two children (one of which is an older daughter) with him (She is also the stepmother of Mika, Edward's daughter via Esperanza, and there is an presumption that she doesn't really care about her, due to her hatred of Esperanza). An alcoholic, she left Edward, because of his propensity to control and dictate his ex-wife's life. She and Esperanza have a lot of animosity, as Yolanda can be quite loud, drunk and obnoxious towards her, and they cannot be in the same room without having a quarrel. She resents the fact that Edward and Esperanza are still connected because of Mika and is fearful that the exes could get back together. She wishes that Edward would pay exclusive attention to her and the family he has with her, and let Esperanza and Mika be on their own. *Octavio Pizano as Julius, the new boyfriend of Esperanza, who is a target of Edward's jealous rages. He is also related to a drug cartel in Colombia, which puts Edward, Esperanza, and most importantly, Mika, in constant danger. He actually goes to Burger Fast, and tries to have a drive-by shooting with the intent of killing Edward, but Lushion protects his partner, and his death is avoided. *Chase Wainscott as Peter Montgomery, the oldest of Brad and Alex's two children. He is quite intuitive, nothing really gets by him, and is close friends with Justice Issacs. He, like his sister, are aware of the strain in their parents marriage and they are no fools. Peter is quite close to his father and he is distressed when his parents marriage ends. *Ashlyn Areu as Paisley Montgomery, the youngest of Brad and Alex's children. Peter's sister; as intuitive as her brother, and very little gets by her. According to her father, Brad, she has the makings of an excellent attorney when she grows up. The children are aware of the troubles their parents are having in their marriage, despite the attempts of their folks trying to hide the issues. She is also distressed when her parents marriage ends. *Celine Areu as Mika Willis, the daughter of Edward and Esperanza. She is the apple of her dad's eye, and is Esperanza's pride and joy. Despite her closeness to her parents, she is hated by her stepmother, Yolanda, who sees her as a reminder of her husband's former marriage. *Clayton Landey as Captain Daniel Mackey, the new head officer of the Maxine Police Department, and Edward and Lushion's immediate superior. He has it in for Randal, as he seems to think that it was he who had a hand in Eddie's shooting at the Burger Fast. A fair, but sometimes stern commander. *Andrea Frye as Louise Holmes, Randal's mother. Miss Louise, as she is sometimes called, is not in approval of her son's shabby way of treating Marcie, and is often times helping her soon-to-be former daughter in-law to escape from her bad marriage. She doesn't much like Marcie being with Brad, but she helps her break free from her bad son, and helps her out with some money to move out. She also keeps Randal from Alex and her racist father. However, she finally has enough of Randal's disrespect of Marcie after he steals her credit card and splurges on $3800 of baby clothes for his new son with Alex. *Marie L. Burke as Faun Kym, the daughter of Mr. Kym, the owner of Burger Fast. Faun is friendly with Joey Henning although her being with him causes Natalie to be fired by her angry father. He was eventually forced to rehire Natalie because the reason he used to fire her was not lawful. Category:Prime time soaps